While only a single billiard cue or billiard cue is necessary to play billiards, billiard players are predisposed to their own favorite cues for a variety of reasons. Increasingly, these cues have fancy and elaborate finishes and include coatings and inlays of precious and rare materials. The cues may be easily scratched or damaged. For these reasons, the cues must be handled and stored carefully.
Stationery and wall mounted cue holders are well known. Denton et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,816, Worden U.S. Pat. No. 481,455, and Richmond U.S. Pat. No. 69,026 are illustrative of these types of cue holders. While these holders serve their purpose, they have limitations. These holders may not be located near the area of play. Additionally, when players bring their own cues to a match, the stationery holder may not accommodate the number of cues.
Cues are oftentimes rested upright with one end of the floor and the shaft or other end against a wall, table, chair or the like.
Lodrick U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,098 discloses a removable holder to retain a pool cue in an upright position with its butt end on the floor. The holder may be releasably mounted on any support surface such as a table or a bar. While Lodrick provides support members to support the cue, since the shaft is not surrounded, a jarring force on the cue could knock the cue over. Additionally, no provision in the holder is made to cushion the cue from scratches or damage.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a portable cue holder that may be transported to a desired site and may be detachably connected to nearly any flat surface for securely retaining a pool cue without scratching, marring or otherwise damaging the cue shaft.
Other patents which are related are described below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,589 to Masters discloses a cue rest for attachment to a suitable support such as the table top includes two opposed jaws with jaw surfaces for engaging opposed sides of the support. The jaws are connected for relative pivotal movement and are spring biased to the clamping position. Each jaw has a manually engageable portion on a side of the pivot axis opposite to the jaw surface and arranged such that the jaws can be moved to the release position by manual squeezing of the manually engageable portions. A generally U-shaped receiving surface is provided on at least one and preferably both of the jaw members, the receiving surface defining an open mouth at an edge of the manually engageable portion opposite to the jaw surfaces for receiving and cradling the cue within the receiving surface.
U.S. Pat. No. D472,090 to Wing discloses a portable pool cue holder.
U.S. Pat. No. D387,114 to Bliss discloses a pool cue holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,799 to Haynes discloses a portable holder for a billiard cue having a base end and a shaft. The portable holder includes a clamp for removable attachment to a table, ledge or the like. A flexible resilient member is capable of surrounding the circumference of the shaft, so that the base end of the cue may be placed on a floor or other surface and the shaft of the cue may be inserted into the member for retention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,945,413 to Meyer discloses a rack assembly includes a clamp including first and second members pivotally connected to each other. The first and second members include first and second jaw portions integral therewith, and are selectively engageable with each other for removably attaching to a support surface. The clamp further includes a spring member connected to the first and second members for causing the first member to automatically move to an original position after being pivoted towards the second member. The rack assembly further includes a rack connected to the clamp and extends outwardly therefrom adjacent the first and second members. The rack may be permanently secured to the clamp or may be removably engaged with the clamp via a fastening member.